Airplanes
by inogirl13
Summary: ShikaIno songfic: oneshot-The emptiness a tragedy can bring...


**Airplanes © inogirl13**

**Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto**

I wrote this as one of my more serious song fics (of course-song fic). The song was Airplanes by B.O.B. feat. Hayley Williams. I've had this idea since I first heard the song. I imagined this to be like if Ino decided to skip Asuma's funeral as well. Kinda changed a few things from how they are in the series. Enjoy.

* * *

"What are you doing here?"

Silence and the drumbeat of rain: that was what greeted Yamanaka Ino's ears. Her feet slanted on the muddy terrain of the hill. Murky green grass sharply outlined the body of her teammate, staring up at the indigo evening sky made overcast by the rain. Ino's eyes felt raw and cracked from the tears shed that day and the days before as she stared at Shikamaru. She tried again,

"Shikamaru, we have to go now." Her voice seemed distance, like the storm made an invisible trench to separate her from the man that was only a foot or two away. Her blonde hair was becoming darker and darker as time passed by them in the wind. It hung around her desolate cerulean eyes and bitten to blood lips, letting tiny water drops fall onto Shikamaru's expressionless face. Although she blocked his view, he seemed to be looking through her. Ino tilted her head to join Shikamaru's gaze at the sky. Empty, excluding a misty moon and a few foggy stars. Ino looked back down on Shikamaru with a concerned expression.

"I'm not leaving," he sighed. Ino started to argue, but it didn't seem to come. Enough arguing had gone on in the past three days. She lay down next to him, pulled her legs up against her and placed her head on his chest. He was drenched and cold, and so was Ino after a few moments of hushed stillness. The smacking of rain drops annoyed her at first, but, along with her tears, they became a comfort over time. Ino watched the heavens, and the reflective beads of rain steadily plummeting down. She looked up at Shikamaru, who acted as if Ino had gone on and left him alone. _"The emptiness a tragedy can bring," _she thought.

"Shikamaru…" Ino whispered, almost so quietly she thought he didn't hear her, considering he said nothing. But his stomach hitched in like when he grunts, and she assumed that was his method of acknowledgment.

"Shikamaru, I don't think I can cry anymore. My tears are all used up." He said nothing, did nothing. Again, he acted as if she was not there: as if she were a small stick or pebble, to be left unnoticed under your feet.

"I don't think anyone can be happy anymore. How can anyone go on? …I don't want to be there as much as you don't, but sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do." For a moment, she found herself forgetting the situation. Her words of motherly advice flowed so easily. She could almost pretend she was lecturing her best friend on something as trivial as choosing the right flower for the right occasion: something that would have been a big deal to her just a week ago. She realized how the imposing the difference was between what she thought she knew and all that there was to know.

"You do understand, it's not your fault. I know you'd like to think that it was, but it could just as easily be anyone's fault. However, no one should take blame. Maybe it was his time…" She hated saying that; it most certainly was not his time. He had so much more to see. No one should be taken so early. But it was her given duty to protect her teammates and, right now, consoling their wounds was necessary to protect them—even if they acted as if they didn't hear you. Because Shikamaru had still not moved. He was behaving like a statue, and it irked Ino that he wouldn't show his emotions. Not even this one time, when it really counted.

Same Shikamaru. As much as this event had changed her outlook on life—and the same Shikamaru as always.

"Please say something, Shikamaru. I can't do this alone. Chouji's heartbroken, and your staying quiet, and I can't…" She felt herself beginning to cry again. Closing her eyes started up the overused line of tears on her cheeks, "I can't handle this alone. I'm working so hard to uphold our name as Team 10, and people are asking me things that I can't handle. Please, Shikamaru. We need to work together to get through this, please…" She felt her body shaking with the familiar sobs.

Her tears were falling so hard that Ino almost didn't notice when a strong arm wrapped around her back and squeezed tight.

The young couple didn't notice, but as the funeral of a respected sensei ended, a brilliant shooting star injected through the dark sky and the rain slowly faded away.


End file.
